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The Lumia 1020, the long-rumored Windows Phone with the full, ludicrous pixel density of the Pureview 808 concept phone (or rather, a phone which became a de facto concept phone due to poor sales, hampered by a bulky design and venerable Symbian operating system), was launched today (Thursday 11th July) at a New York event.

While most of the focus fell on the big number of the camera, also of interest was the launch schedule. Unlike the Lunia 925, the 1020 is launching first in the US, on 26 July, with a European launch slated for shortly after that.

Shutterbugs in the system

The rest of the 1020's specifications are perfectly respectable for a current-generation Windows Phone device - a 4.5" AMOLED display pushes 1,280 by 768 pixels, driven by a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor with 2GB RAM and 32GB of storage. However, attention is going to settle on that 41MP camera, which still causes a pronounced bump - although nothing like so dramatic as the 808's outward bulge - in the case.

Since the legendary "burning platform" memo and the adoption of Windows Phone as Nokia's first and increasingly only smartphone platform, with Meego and Symbian sputtering out, the challenge has been to establish a clear differentiator for the Windows Phone platform in general, which continues to tail iOS and Android at a considerable distance, and Nokia's phones in particular.

Basically crazypants - the Nokia 1020, with a 41MP camera

The first differentiator was design - using the "fabula" design language to create rounded, brightly-colored phones with Nokia's traditional brand emphasis on build quality. Subsequently, a range of consumer-friendly elements have been added - replaceable fascias, wireless charging, NFC-enabled wireless music - along with Nokia's traditionally excellent mapping software.

However, the relative dearth of apps for Windows Phone was a problem, as was the relative ease with which design features, at least on a superficial level, could be responded to - like the more muted but still colorful 8x range.

However, consumers do buy phones on the strength of their cameras - the Cybershot brand held up even as what was then Sony Eriksson's mobile phone range began to look dated in the iPhone age - and a dedicated marketing push towards digital imaging might be a chance for Nokia to restate their case.

First up, there is that absurd, 41MP number. In point of fact, the most common photographic unit users will experience is the compressed 5MP versions used for mobile formats - where Nokia say the preponderance of pixels in the raw photo will allow for greater detail. This all somewhat resembles HTC's "ultrapixel" branding. There will also be a 38MP image, however, which can be downloaded. The possibilities in particular for journalists and not-quite-prosumer shutterbugs leap out immediately. As my friends at Wired UK puckishly observed:

It comes at an opportune time: the US paper Chicago Sun-Times recently fired all of its professional photographers, instead opting to teach its journalists how to capture pictures with smartphones (iPhones for now). Nokia would do well to drop a box of Lumia 1020s on the Chicago Sun-Times building.

For most, however, the best camera remains the one you have, and very few camera phones at the premium end are not at the very least good enough - in the Instagram age, relatively few consumers are hurting for the lack of a 7712 by 5360 pixel image, or a virtual focus ring rather than tap-to-focus.

Insofar as there is a sub-prosumer camera market, Nokia is pushing hard for it - whereas the previous Windows Phone 8 Nokias were launched with cute charging pillows and NFC-enabled Bluetooth speakers as their featured accessories, the 1020 is being accessorized with a "camera grip" which deliberately adds bulk to the phone in order to make it feel more like a Leica, and accomodates a screw-in tripod mount, along with a supplementary battery to counterbalance power drain one of the problems of phone-as-serious-camera.

Camera not shy: the Nokia 1020's "camera grip" case

Will it be a success? On one hand, there are people out there who buy Will.i.am's rather eccentric foto so.sho iPhone camera transformation kit. On the other, that number is not great. Nokia have almost exactly the opposite problem experienced by many me-too handset makers: there is no doubt that they can make innovative hardly - even hardware that is on a conceptual level desirable. The challenge, rather, is to make a handset with mass appeal, a challenge complicated by the market's ongoing ambivalence to Windows Phone. Tony Cripps, principal device analyst at Ovum, concurred by email:

The combination (of Windows Phone 8 and the 41MP camera) sets a new benchmark for high-end smartphone engineering – and a timely reminder of Nokia’s R&D capabilities – but the company must still overcome incumbent rivals, slow adoption of Windows Phone and a modest marketing budget if it is to finally help the company turn a financial corner after its recent time in the doldrums.

At $299 with an contract, comfortably over an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S4, the Nokia 1020 is unlikely to be a mass-market smash - but if it can convince that Nokia is back to making desirable technology, it may have a value beyond its impact on the bottom line. If rumors of a possible bid for Nokia - or its phone division, after the July 10 announcement that Siemens' 50% stake in Nokia Siemens Networks is to be acquired - persist, excellence as a hardware and software integration research house is not to be undervalued.